Monday, December 10, 2012

Another quick spider story before I start opening up/coming clean about another of my experiences/nightmares. There are actually several of these and I have been asked to 'share' them all for the sake of other sufferers. Will begin this next blog.We did seem to keep choosing houses with more spiders living in or around them than was comfortable for me (but then I only need to see one for that to happen). Our house in a suburb of Perth (Western Australia) was OK - cannot ever remember seeing any BIG spiders, only Daddy-Long-Legs and Redbacks - both of which are extremely venomous actually but the hideous Huntsman beats them all hands down in my book. I do recall an incident with a Redback at the above mentioned house in Perth. I remember seeing this perfect example seemingly sitting comfortably, minding its own business, on a bicycle on our back verandah. I resorted to my old 'dealing' method again (didn't feel that I had a lot of choice) and told it to stay right where it was and I'd go and get something to kill it. It was obviously a very good spider - or a very stupid one. OK so it didn't understand English and I wasn't exactly fluent in spider-speak. Anyway, needless to say it hadn't moved a leg when I returned with a full can of spray. So I set to and gave it a quick burst, getting ready to spray again and keep at it until it died - but didn't move at all. It should have moved - stupid thing. After all I was firing point blank at it. Obviously sillier than I thought - so I sprayed again. And again - no movement whatsoever. What the heck was this thing? Its normal big black back with the superb red stripe - was all white and foamy now. Huh? So I sprayed again - and again - and again - and kept at it until, believe it or not, I emptied the can. But not once had it moved - not a muscle. No prizes for guessing that it had been dead all along. Hmmmmm.....Ah....now we did have some horrible spider experiences in all four of the houses we lived in when interstate. I'll just have to see what I feel like talking about for my next blog - actually, thinking about it, the whole lot would be chalked up to being nightmares.Ah well....time will tell. Beware, be very ware and stay tuned.....

Saturday, December 8, 2012

AN AUSTRALIAN MARITIME TRAGEDY

157 passengers and crew lost as a result of a severe cyclone (Lua). Date: March 1912. Sounds familiar? Thoughts of the 'Titanic' are dredged up.WRONG. This is not the 'Titanic'. This is the 'SS Koombana'. An Australian maritime tragedy that, coincidentally, occurred shortly before that of the 'Titanic', in 1912. But because of the latter, the former seemingly disappeared into oblivion.History? Absolutely. And a very important part of our history in Australia yet, ask 99.9999999% of the population here if they have ever heard of it and you're more than likely to get a vague look in response. But mention the 'Titanic' - hmmmm - completely different story. W. ONhat an essential part of history it is - how absolutely and disgustingly tragic that it was all but ignored and overlooked because of a similar tragedy that occurred on the other side of the world, just weeks later. The 'Koombana' was an Australian ship. Built in Glasgow it became the pride of the now defunct Adelaide Steamship Company but was lost at sea, thanks to Cyclone Lua, in March 2012. Sadly and in my opinion, very poorly, little is known and there appears to be an equal lack of interest about it. The 'Koombana' was one of our ships - an AUSTRALIAN ship. Many of the passengers were Australian.A centenary was held to mark the 100th anniversary of this fateful story at Port Hedland, where the 'Koombana 'was lost. There has also been a more recent exhibition mounted by the Fremantle Maritime Museum - but it seems none of this is helping to 'educate' the general public about our tragedy, whereas most of them know all about the 'Titanic'.It appears that the wreck of this ship has never been found - but then not a lot is known in general about this particular ship nor the fateful voyage and it's tragic end. Whereas there is sooo much information, including at least one movie, about the 'Titanic', which is wonderful for the latter - but why was the 'Koombana; so seemingly overlooked, even by Australians?Bringing the details of this maritime tragedy to light and giving it the attention and exposure it so badly deserves is absolutely essential - for our history and for the education of Australians. For those people who lost loved ones. For everyone.One couple who lost family members has decided to do just this - they approached me (and none of us will ever know why they did) about it and I am now doing my level best to organise much more exposure, via the media if at all possible (it is an Australian maritime tragedy so why the hell not???) and I am in the process of writing a book about it. Afew things are in the pipeline.Should there be any media interest at this stage or if anyone has any other information relating to this tragedy, please contact me. Believe me, it is all very welcome. A huge launch will be organised for the release of the book itself.Watch this blog and my websites for further information as it comes to hand.

About Me

Lannah was born in South Australia in 1955, and raised on "Pitcairn Station". Her primary education was provided by School of the Air and correspondence lessons, followed by boarding school in Adelaide. Later, she went on to hold a variety of positions in Adelaide and then in other states.
After travelling overseas she returned home via Western Australia and decided to settle there. Lannah and her husband, Stuart, have two daughters, Robyn and Fiona, both in their twenties.
Lannah works full time. She is passionate about her family, animals, the outback of Australia, and writing, among many other interests.